Various forms of wide range bumper mounted hitches have been heretofore designed for the purpose of easing the task of hitching a towing vehicle to a towed vehicle. However, most wide range tow hitches either require special mounting structure or are not of a substantially fully retractable type.
Examples of previously patented tow hitches including some of the general structural and operational features of the instant invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,147,027, 3,419,285, 3,666,121, 2,704,900, 3,774,949 and 3,794,355.
Additionally, application Ser. No. 667,375 filed Mar. 16, 1976 for a Wide Range Bumper Mounted Hitch, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,255, discloses a bumper structure which was improved by the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,255 (Ser. No. 667,375) is incorporated herewith by reference.
The referenced Wide Range Bumper Mounted Hitch works quite well. Hitching of a loaded wagon to the referenced bumper hitch results in ease of hitching and transport of the wagon. When the wagon is empty, however, the movement of the wagon tends to cause shock transfer through the bumper hitch to the towing vehicle. Positioning of a damping spring between the bumper hitch and the towing vehicle did not solve the shock problem. The present invention provides a solution to the shock difficulties encountered as well as providing other improvements to the original invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,255 (Ser. No. 667,375).